You could almost see the campaign commercials as Sen. Chris Dodd — hard at work in shirt-sleeves — presided last week over three very long days of committee action on health care.

It may be the perfect issue for a Senate veteran with a tarnished image and a tough reelection fight ahead.

But there’s just one catch: All the time Dodd is spending as a stand-in for Sen. Ted Kennedy on health care is time he’s not spending on financial regulatory reform, which would otherwise be his primary responsibility as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

Dodd insists he can get both done this year, as President Barack Obama wants. But his critics are skeptical.

“On something of this magnitude, you need a chairman with a very hands-on approach,” said Brian Gardner, a former GOP aide and current senior vice president of Washington research for Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, a New York City-based financial services firm. “And until the health care debate resolves itself and Dodd returns to focus on regulatory restructuring, I think it’s going to be a rather slow go.”

And it’s not just a matter of timing. The Democrats on Dodd’s committee are divided on the White House financial reform plan, and the dissenters could take control of the process if the chairman isn’t firmly in control.

“There’s no consensus view on these issues,” said one financial services executive. While House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has found some sort of harmony among Democrats on his committee, the executive said that Dodd’s committee is “all over the place ... which makes it all the more cumbersome when he does parachute back in.”

Dodd and his supporters dismiss the idea that he is neglecting his chairman duties on the regulatory legislation.

Dodd has repeatedly stressed that he is working on financial regulatory overhaul at the same time he stands in for Kennedy on the health care front.

“We are working at it,” Dodd said after Obama unveiled his regulatory reform blueprint at the White House on June 17. “I want to emphasize that while there are other matters dominating the attention of the Senate right now, I can just tell you that the Senate Banking Committee is working already on drafting ideas and proposals in consultation, obviously, with Barney and the White House on the very bill that the president has outlined this morning.”

Dodd’s staff talks just about every day with administration aides on the issue, and his office points to the fact that the committee has already held 15 hearings this year related to the regulatory reform issue, 12 of them before the full committee.

But Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), a member of the committee, said there’s no way that financial regulatory reform will move quickly if his colleagues — and his chairman — are focused on health care. And that’s just fine with him.

“There’s no question. It has to affect the chairman’s ability to focus on [regulatory reform],” Corker told POLITICO. “Do I think we need to rush through reg reform anyway? No. My hope is that we’ll be able to do both well and do both within a reasonable time frame.”

Meanwhile, financial lobbyists are grumbling that it’s difficult to get meetings with Dodd — and that the Connecticut Democrat engages with them only through press releases, such as the scorcher sent out last week titled “Dodd slams financial industry for opposing consumer protections.”

“No one meets with Dodd. He’s not interested in reg reform. He only comes out for the press opportunities,” said one industry lobbyist.

Of course, even Dodd’s defenders acknowledge that he might be better served politically by playing a high-profile role on health care than by slogging through the regulatory reform of the financial services industry. The optics of fighting for the top kitchen-table concern for many Americans provides the perfect antidote to the image of Dodd as too cozy with Wall Street fat cats — fueled by the controversy of his getting what some view as a sweetheart mortgage deal from now-defunct Countrywide Financial — and as out of touch with folks back home, symbolized for many by his quixotic run for the White House.

“Being associated with an issue like health care is potentially — in terms of the politics of it — very good, if you can achieve something,” said Democratic strategist Tad Devine. “It’s also fraught with risk if you don’t.”

But if he were running Dodd’s reelection, Devine would definitely want his boss involved in health care. “It’s a demonstration of leadership. And I think in the end, that’s the most important quality that voters are looking for with incumbent senators,” he said. “Even if they don’t agree with them, they want to know that they stand up for what they believe and they’re fighting to get something done.”

And some of Dodd’s supporters are confident that he can make progress on health care and regulatory reform simultaneously.

“After 30 years in the Senate, if there’s anybody that can rub their stomach and scratch their head at the same time, it’s probably Chris Dodd,” said Democratic strategist Phil Singer.

“I don’t buy that the Senate will run out of time with all the other priorities on their plate. I believe that, by the end of the year, there’s a very good chance that some kind of regulatory reform will get passed,” said Richard Hunt, president of the Consumer Bankers Association.